Jamaat-e-Islami has expressed concern and apprehension over the interim government’s capacity to conduct a national election, given its failure to curb extortion, the party’s Naib-e-Ameer Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher said on Sunday.
“Previously one group would take control of the bus stands; now another group has seized those. Yet the interim government has taken no visible action against these occupiers,” he told the media.
A four-member delegation of Jamaat met the Chief Adviser of the interim government, Professor Muhammad Yunus, at the state guesthouse Jamuna (currently serving as the Chief Adviser’s official residence) on Sunday afternoon.
Emerging from the meeting, Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher briefed newspersons outside Jamuna.
He led the delegation, which also included Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar, Assistant Secretary General Rafiqul Islam Khan, and Hamidur Rahman Azad.
Speaking about the upcoming election, the Jamaat Naib-e-Ameer said, “Given the time still available, if the government takes the right decisions and pursues the correct initiatives, the situation can improve. If the situation improves, then an election will be possible.”
He also asserted that since the Jatiya Party had long operated as an ally of the Awami League (activities banned), the same decision taken against the Awami League should also be applied to the Jatiya Party.
Taher noted that while the Chief Adviser had spoken of ensuring free and fair polls, Jamaat agreed in principle but differed on questions of feasibility.
“The public now wonders whether the country is heading towards a blueprint election,” he remarked.
Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher pointed to what he described as an “unprecedented” episode: the government’s announcement of the election date following a meeting with a particular political party in London.
“This undermined the neutrality of the government and granted undue advantage to one party,” he said.
The Jamaat leader thought that the announcement of the election date on the day of the “July Declaration” (5 August) appeared to have been made under pressure. “There was clearly a pressure at play,” he observed.
The government should have first made its position clear regarding the July Charter, and only then announced the election roadmap and timetable, he added.
Asked whether the meeting had discussed the possible banning of the Jatiya Party, Syed Abdullah Muhammad Taher said that the conspiracy surrounding the attack on Nurul Haque (President of Gono Odhikar Parishad) ran very deep.
Jamaat, he stated, had urged the government to take stern action against the perpetrators.
He also asserted that since the Jatiya Party had long operated as an ally of the Awami League (activities banned), the same decision taken against the Awami League should also be applied to the Jatiya Party.